Chitra Ramkrishna sent to 14-day judicial custody in NSE phone tapping case

A Delhi Court on July 22 sent former National Stock Exchange (NSE) CEO & MD Chitra Ramkrishna to 14-day judicial custody in a money laundering case related to alleged illegal phone tapping and snooping of employees of the stock exchange. Special Judge Sunaina Sharma passed the order after Chitra Ramkrishna was produced before the court on the expiry of her ED custody. Arrested on July 14, the NSE CEO & MD was first remanded to four-day custody, which was again extended by another four days, during which she was interrogated and also confronted by the anti-money laundering agency with three persons and several documents.

NSE snoopgate

The ED has filed a money laundering case against ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey and ex-NSE top officials Chitra Ramkrishna, Ravi Narain and Mahesh Haldipur under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). According to the probe agency, during the year 2009 to 2017, former NSE CEO Ravi Narain, Ramkrishna, Executive Vice President Ravi Varanasi, and Head (Premises) Mahesh Haldipur and others conspired together to cheat NSE and its employees and for the said purpose, iSEC Services Pvt Ltd, a company associated with former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey, was engaged for illegal interception of phone calls of NSE employees. 

In the probe documents, the ED mentions how the NSE was allegedly provided with four Primary Rate Interface (PRI) Lines by iSec Services. "That M/s. iSec monitored/intercepted the calls of these four PRI lines used by employees of NSE. M/s. iSec also submitted copies of transcripts of conversations to the top management of NSE between 01.01.2009 to 13.02.2017," the Central agency said, adding that the reports were titled 'Monitoring Reports for Call Logs'.  

The agency added, “Transcripts of these calls were provided by iSEC and received by the officials of NSE at the top level in breach of confidentiality and privacy of employees of NSE and thereby, caused wrongful gain of Rs 4.54 crore to iSEC as payment for this task and corresponding wrongful loss to NSE."

Image: PTI